Mystery Skulls Animated: I'm sorry
by Valkyr1eCa1n
Summary: Based off of a fanart of Lewis getting startled by Arthur's metal arm during their first meeting after the cave.


**I'm not dead!...On the outside. So it took a bit after Hellbent came out but after watching it for the hundredth time I felt the desire to write a fanfic based off the first video. This was directly inspired off a piece of artwork I found on pinterest where Lewis is startled by Arthur's metallic arm during their first meeting after his death. I could have sworn I had read a fanfic based off of it as well, but for the life of me, I couldn't find it anywhere so I figured I had daydreamed it. So this is me writing it. Hope you enjoy- it is a bit cringe worthy as I tried to incorporate Arthur having a heavy stutter (while I have a slight stutter I wasn't sure how to write a heavy one) so please have mercy on me, this is my first fanfic in a long time.**

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"OW!" Arthur cried out as his rear contacted the concrete floor. Remaining on the floor, he looked up at the spot in the ceiling where the giant hole had swallowed the trio of ghost hunters.

He looked around and called out to his friends, "Vivi? Mystery?" and as if on cue a sudden thud drew his attention to a coffin that had been perched up against the wall on top of a short staircase. Consumed in anticipation and fear, Arthur remained rooted to the floor as the box slowly opened to reveal a large, well dressed skeleton ghost.

The spector floated gently down the staircase, landing mere feet away from the mechanic. The two remained silent as the ghost glared at his once best friend and Arthur staring at the other with a mix of fear and confusion. Something in Arthur ached when he looked at the magenta spirit, but he couldn't understand why, but for some reason he wasn't as scared as he knew he should be.

Something about the ghost made him feel sad and without thinking he spoke up.

"H...Hi." Even without a face confusion was evident in the way Lewis' eye shot up and the other lowered. "Are you...Are you… alright?" Lewis was at a loss for words as he listened to the man stutter through his sentence, he knew the blonde had a pretty bad stutter but was it always this bad? No matter, it didn't matter to him, the blonde would soon get what was coming.

"Are you… Are you... trap… trapped here?" All his feelings of anger, rage and betrayal were beginning to slightly dim to the confusion.

"Wha-" He had fully anticipated the coward to freak out, run or beg for his life, or all of the above. But seeing him try to help him, now that was unexpected and it almost made him smile in nostalgia... Almost.

"I...I'm s...sorry," Arthur stammered trying to find the words and make them come out, "It's ju...just you look kinda… kinda sad." Arthur paused to collect his thoughts.

'Sad?' Lewis thought, 'Is he stupid, I'm pissed. He should be begging me for forgiveness. He should be begging for his pathetic life. He. Should. Be. Dead.'

"I...I work in a… I work in a group of...ghost hunters. I could take you to my… my fr...friend. Sorry for… for the stu...stutter. It's gotten worse...since...since." Raising his left arm he placed it to his forehead to soothe the headache that begun to form from the stress.

Lewis continued to keep silent until something caught his eye. "Huh?!" He gasped out, recoiling back in surprise.

"Wha-" Arthur questioned until he realized where the ghost was quickly hid his arm behind his back in shame. "Sorry. That's my fault." The stutter that he fought with so desperately a moment ago seemed to just vanish for that one comment. Lewis pointed to the metal arm, making Arthur sigh as he brought it back into view. "I forget sometimes… It scares people… I guess it… guess it also… scares ghosts… scares ghosts too."

"How?" Lewis asked, thoughts of vengeance begun to take a backseat to curiosity.

"Ah," Arthur mumbled, trying to consider if he should, "I guess there's no harm in… in sharing." He declared as he stood up and walked passed the curious spector.

He took a seat on the corner of the bottom step and placed chin on his fists that rested on his legs. It took a good minute for the blonde to find a starting place.

Taking a deep breath, Arthur begun, "It happened about a year ago. My...my friends. My friends and I. We were in...investigating a cave haunting in Nebraska.,"

Lewis knew all too well, that was the case he lost- Arthur took- his life. Lewis crossed his arms, 'No, don't think about that. He will get what's coming to him. Maybe he will admit why he killed me if he doesn't know who I am.'

"I had this... Funny feeling, like there was something...something dangerous about it, but no one would listen to me. Who would listen to the group...coward.

Well, when...when w...when we got in the cave...that feeling grew worse. We split up and I went up the trail with Lew…" Arthur cut himself off, body shaking at the memory. Tears pricked at his eyes as his breaths became shallow.

Lewis watched with half a mind to comfort and half to chuck him across the room, he decided to opt for remaining silent as the younger male composed himself.

"Sorry. Lew...Lewis is...was my...He was my best friend and our leader. He was brave, compassionate, and loyal. No one could compare to him,"

It felt weird to hear such words from his killer. 'What could he be playing at?' Lewis wondered.

"We went up the top trail while the others went down. But there was something… Something… There was… something evil. It spoke to me, in my head…"

Lewis raised an eye in curiosity.

"It read my thoughts...It told me...things, showed me things. They... twiisted my memories of him, tried to make me want to...want to…" Arthur felt the frustration as the words struggled to form." It took over, I could feel my arm losing all feeling. I started to feel numb… I could...I couldn't…. It… I… Pushed...Push… Lew...is. It made me kill him! I killed my best friend!" Angry with himself, Arthur pounded his head into his fists repeatedly.

Lewis couldn't believe what he had heard. Arthur, he didn't do it? Was it true? Could he be lying? Staring at the tormented male Lewis took pity on him. He walked over to him and knelt down, placing a large hand over Arthurs fists. In surprise, Arthur shot his head up to find himself staring at a sad looking skeleton ghost. Arthur remained at a loss of words as he watched the ghost slowly shake his head.

"It wasn't your fault." He stated.

"It was!" Arthur yelled, shooting up to his feet. "It was my arm! I let it in because of my stupid emotions! I felt useless, no matter what I was always being left behind, forgotten. I was jealous of them- they were everything I could never be! She was smart, he was brave… But when they started dating I felt jealousy for a new reason."

Not wanting to admit it to anyone, Arthur held his tongue and remained silent on that part, deciding to continue with the story.

"It heard Vivi's scream and… god… the things it wanted to do to her." Lewis felt his chest clench at the indication.

"I tried to fight it...to fight it... but it was spreading, I couldn't control my left arm...The next thing I knew my arm was being ripped off by a giant version of out dog, Mystery. It hurt so bad but because of it I was freed...but Lewis…And Vivi… God! She doesn't even remember him!"

Arthur fell to his knees, he felt numb, but in a different way than when he had been possessed. Lewis felt nothing but guilt as he witnessed his friend's breakdown.

"It should have been me." Arthur mumbled helplessly.

'How could I have thought?' He shook his head, there was no way he could have know. He suddenly felt glad he had let his curiosity take over before he had done something he would have regretted.

Lewis fell to his knees, allowing his arms to hang to the ground. "I'm so sorry...Arthur… I didn't know."

Arthur shot up in shock. "How did… How did you know… know my name? Who...Who are you?"

"Arthur...It's me…" Without a word, Arthur watched as a flame manifested on the skeleton head. Once formed Arthur's eyes widened, fear finally taking over.

"LEWIS!" He screamed out, falling backwards and frantically trying to get away only to be blocked by a wall.

"Arthur." Lewis tried to comfort, " I'm not going to hurt you, please calm down." He walked over to where Arthur

Instead of calming down, Arthur only further panicked when Lewis attempted to reach out to him. His breaths became fast and shallow and his eyes glassy. His body began to feel numb and the stub that connected to the metal of his arm began to throb painfully.

"Oh god, Arthur!" Lewis began to panic as the signs of a major panic attack began presenting themselves. Trying to think fast before younger lost consciousness or hurt himself.

Deciding the skeleton look was not a great idea he focused his energy into manifesting an image of his human self over his skeleton form. He knelt down in front of Arthur, who didn't even seem to notice through his frantic mumbling.

"Artie," Man that name felt foreign on his tongue. How long had it been since he used that nickname, he couldn't remember, "come on, buddy. It's going to be alright. I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. I didn't mean to scare you."

Arthur didn't seem to hear him and Lewis felt useless as he stared into Arthur's eye, noticing for the first time that the left one was green and then it sunk in. His best friend had been possessed and forced to do something awful. Lewis swore that the thing that did that to him would pay, but right now, Arthur was far more important.

Years worth of friendship, Lewis had learned how easily Arthur could be set off and had learned exactly how to help his friend through times like these… He only hoped that it would still work.

Lewis sighed and plopped down next to Arthur who was now beginning to look like he was losing consciousness. He put hand on the top of Arthur's hair and began to slowly run his fingers through his golden locks, resting his forearm on the back of his neck. It was always a bit uncomfortable at first, but it had always seemed to help.

Just as he hopped, Arthur's breathing began to slow down after a few minutes and the glassy look in his eyes began to fade. Before long his breathing returned to normal, albeit a bit heavy due to the lack of oxygen for so long.

The two sat in silence as Arthur recovered, however Lewis continued to stroke his head since it provided continued comfort.

"Lew...Lewis?" Arthur finally spoke, his voice quiet and rough.

"Hmm?" Lewis responded softly.

"I'm sorry." Arthur hung his head low as he apologized.

"No, I'm sorry." The blonde's head shot up, confused eyes staring into violet.

"I had led you guys here with every intention of getting revenge on you," Arthur flinched at the confession, "but, I should have known you would have never hurt me, not willingly. I'm sorry you had to go through something like that and I should have been able to help or notice something was wrong."

"You couldn't… You couldn't have known." Arthur stuttered.

"I should have. I noticed that you seemed to be more closed off after Vivi and I had gotten together, but I was so caught up in my happiness that I ignored it. But as time went on I noticed the way you would look when you thought we weren't looking and I knew I couldn't ignore it. It wasn't fair to you and I had to do something. And I was… after the cave I was going to talk to you, but it never happened."

Arthur pulled his knees into himself, resting his face in his knees. "Before I ruined everything."

Lewis took Arthur's shoulder, pulling him to face himself, "You did nothing wrong!" Arthur stared in shock at how determined Lewis looked- God he missed seeing that face- and kept listening, "Whatever you were thinking or feeling, it was not your fault. It used you, it took advantage of the way I made you feel." The two sat in silence, neither knowing quite what to say.

"Why is one of your eyes green?" Lewis finally asked.

Arthur pulled his metallic arm up to his eye, barely pressing the cold metal to his skin. "Mystery...Mystery says that a small part of the demon was left behind, not enough...for it to... for it to take over... "

"Mystery says?" Lewis questioned, causing Arthur to clamp his hands over his mouth. "Arthur?"

Arthur let out a deep sigh. "You know how... I...You know how I s...said a larger version of… of Mystery ripped off my arm?"

Lewis nodded, "Well, turns out… Well… Mystery is a kitsune. He bit off my arm to stop the demon from spreading and completely taking me over. And he...he can...he can talk."

Lewis huffed in disbelief as he processed the situation. "This sucks." He stated.

"You...You're te..telling me." Arthur responded.

"How are you feeling?" Lewis asked.

"Like shit." Arthur answered, earning a slight chuckle from the ghost.

"You okay if I drop the illusion? It uses up a lot of my energy the longer I hold it up." Arthur took a second to process the request but nodded. Lewis' form burned away, leaving a floating skeleton head with blacked out eyes.

"We should probably go to the other two, judging by what you told me we have a lot to cover… Starting with the talking dog." Lewis declared, standing up and holding out a hand to his buddy.

Hesitating, Arthur nodded and reached out, taking his hand and hoisting himself up. "I missed you."


End file.
